Mohammad Abrar wakes up coughing most mornings. It’s not yet dawn but New Delhi is already blanketed in thick smog when he sets off for work.

By 4 am, Abrar, aged 50, reaches Seelampur, a small neighbourhood in the capital’s north-east suburbs, which is home to India’s largest electrical-waste market.

The market’s narrow lanes are lined with small scrapstores overflowing with piles of broken computers, telephones, TVs, microwaves, washing machines, ACs and end-of-life batteries.

Abrar is one of more than , including women and children, who make a living sifting through thrown-out goods to recover valuable materials that can be recycled and eventually reused in modern technologies.

In recent years, Abrar and his peers have become the backbone of a fast-growing network of start-ups seeking to extract energy transition minerals from e-waste in a process known as “urban mining”.

Seelampur’s e-waste market is a vast treasure trove for the highly-coveted metals and minerals the world needs to shift from fossil fuels to clean energy systems and curb climate change.

Charging cables for everyday items contain copper, a conductive metal which is used in virtually all electricity-related technologies. The aluminium in electronic components is needed to manufacture solar panels.

But most sought after still are batteries. The majority of electronics such as mobile phones, laptops...